Make the Most of a Low Wagering Bonus
Even once you’ve identified and claimed a low wagering casino bonus, it can still be difficult to convert your bonuses into withdrawable cash. Here are some of our expert tips on making the most of low wager casinos:
Calculate Your Bonus’s Total Wagering Requirement
Before you figure out how to make the most of your low wagering bonus, you must first calculate out how much you need to wager. Further down this page you can use our bonus calculator to figure out the wagering requirements of your chosen low wagering casino bonus. But for now, let’s use Grosvenor Casino, which has some of the lowest wagering requirements on the UK market, as an example.
Grosvenor Casino offers new players £30 in bonus funds when they deposit their first £20, at a wagering requirement of just 5x. Although some online casinos apply wagering requirements to the bonus funds alone, Grosvenor’s exceptionally low wagering requirements must be applied to both the sum of your deposit and your bonus funds, totalling £50. That means that you will have to wager £250 (50×5) in order to start making cash returns on this bonus.
This may seem steep, but this bonus actually represents some of the lowest wagering requirements outside of those attached to free spins. Generally speaking, wagering requirements kill off any hopes of making cash returns with a bonus but, by following our other tips on making the most of low wagering bonuses, it is plausible to convert such bonuses into real cash. By calculating your total wagering requirements beforehand, you can make a clear judgement call on whether clearing them is within your gambling budget.
Money and Time Management
It’s important to be aware of how long you have to meet your low wagering requirements. Some wagering requirements can appear exceedingly high upon first glance, but depending on how long you have to satisfy them, they may be more achievable than they first appear.Â
888casino’s wagering requirements of 30x, for example, sounds significantly higher than Grosvenor’s 5x multiplier, but it gives you 90 days to clear them, whereas Grosvenor Casino only gives you 30.
Let’s look a little closer. 888casino offers new players a 100% matched deposit bonus, and so if you were to make the minimum qualifying deposit of £20, the wagering requirements would mean you have to wager £600 (20×30) before making cash withdrawals.
Again, £600 may seem high, but when distributed over the 3 months 888casino gives players to fulfil these demands, you would be able to clear these requirements with a £200 monthly budget. Similarly, if £200 is beyond your monthly budget, you know to view your bonus purely as a means to try out some games without wagering real money..
If you manage your spending effectively over the bonus period, you could see a cash return from your bonus without having to wager uncomfortable amounts.
Play Games with 100% Game Weighting
Game weighting is a crucial and frequently overlooked factor in determining wagering requirements. It will take you significantly longer to fulfil your wagering demands if you aren’t playing games which have a 100% weighting towards your bonuses, and which games have 100% will vary depending on which online casino you’re playing at.Â
Grosvenor Casino, for example, only attributes 100% game weighting to the slots, and even then a number of the most popular slot titles are excluded entirely from its bonus. So make sure you’ve checked the bonus terms and conditions and, if completing the wagering requirements is on your agenda, don’t get caught out wasting your stakes on games that aren’t going to help you clear your wagering requirements.
Stick to the Slots
Slots are almost always given 100% game weighting on bonuses, and come with the highest RTP rates. Wagering requirements are often set separately for matched deposits and free spins, so keep an eye out for that in welcome packages, but it’s also important to note that they work differently for free spins. Instead of applying to the bonus’s monetary value, wagering requirements are usually applied to the free spins’ winnings. If, for example, you won £10 with your free spins at 10x wagering, you would need to wager £100 in order to withdraw the bonus winnings.
You may want to consider using your bonuses at low wager casinos on high RTP slot titles like Playtech’s Ugga Bugga or NetEnt’s Mega Joker – providing they aren’t excluded from the bonus. Though there are never any assurances even with high RTP titles like these, high RTP games do have a better chance of dropping wins than medium and low RTP titles.Â